Mercantilism in the Guise of Free Trade? Evidence from a Survey of Experts

The special question featured in the ifo World Economic Survey for the first quarter of 2017 focused on the impact of free trade in each participant’s country of residence. Almost three quarters of the experts surveyed assessed free trade as positive; while just 15% believes that it is negative. The likelihood of a positive assessment is greater if a country has a trade balance surplus and lower if it has a trade deficit.